Monday, June 22, 2009

With a family as large as mine, there is not a day set aside for washing clothes. We wash EVERY DAY.

Of course I do 99.999% of the washing. I do encourage my children to occasionally put a load of towels in the washer. At the least bring towels down stairs when the pile next to the 2-foot basket for dirty towels is as tall as the basket. We do not re-use towels. Once you use it, it goes into the basket. (I have this phobia about someone using my towel.)

Last week, I received a call from my baby girl; she’s nine years old. “Mama, how do you wash clothes?” she asked.

Awwww, she wanted to help her me out.

(Screeching of sound of a train trying to stop!!!) “I want to wear my purple shorts, and they’re dirty,” she says.

To the best of my ability, I tried to explain to her how to sort the colors to go along with her shorts. I then instructed her to tell the 13 year old (the middle child), to put the load in the washer for her. Middle child knows how to operate the washer.

When I got home, those clothes were still in the machine, and I started putting them in the dryer. That washing machine was PACKED with clothes. There were not just purple, and like colors. It was jam packed with clothes, of all colors. Dark clothes, colored clothes, along with the mostly white shirts, with screen-printed designs, had all been washed together. GASP! (Check out the picture.) There was a little bit of EVERYTHING. Three loads full, in that one washer!!!

When the clothes came out of the dryer, she asked, “Did I do a good Mama?”

“You did a lot, but yes you did good,” I told her.

I need to do a How to sort clothes 101, for my folks!

The next morning I got a call from baby girl… “Mama, how do you cook bacon in the microwave?”